College
by KatieBug445
Summary: Castiel tries comforting Dean after their daughter leaves home for college. Written for a roleplay of mine.


Castiel waved a final goodbye to his daughter from the front porch of the farmhouse; tears glistening in his eyes and worry for her safety in his heart. He stayed there until he could no longer see the dust that her small, hot pink VW Bug picked up on the dirt road that led back to the rickity old place. With a sigh, he turned and headed back inside, the screen door creaking in protest as he opened it, and headed upstairs to her room.

The inside of Elizabeth's room was filled with pictures-some of himself and Dean, some family pictures of the three of them, a few of her and her little cousin, (Sam and Gabriel's daughter, Madison) Sam and Gabriel, Bobby, Jody, and her school friends-that were covering the purple walls of her bedroom. Castiel looked around and sniffed; he was going to miss her presence in the house so much. Eighteen years had come and gone so quickly, it seemed like only yesterday that he and Dean were filling out adoption papers and going to bring her home. Now she was heading for college and Castiel couldn't have been more proud of her.

He was there with Liz the entire time she was filling out applications. After she would get home from school, the two of them would sit down and apply for colleges, sometimes getting input from Uncle Sam and/or Uncle Gabriel, much to Dean's disappointment.

Dean was none to happy about the idea of his daughter leaving home for some culinary school which was all the way across the country, and being on her own, even though Sam constantly assured his older brother that she would be fine, that he had nothing to worry about, and that they would all keep in contact.

Dean had just grumbled to himself about his baby girl hooking up with some punk ass kid and going off and getting herself pregnant because her daddy wasn't there to protect her. Castiel had only rolled his eyes and headed out to the back porch with a cup of tea to enjoy the sunset and think about life without his daughter around.

Elizabeth had always been such a big part of his and Dean's lives, ever since the moment they'd brought her home. With her gorgeous, kind, green eyes and a mess of dark blonde hair, she looked incredibly like the two of them and could have passed as their biological daughter. In almost every way, she was like Dean, which meant Castiel had his hands full from the start, which also meant that he loved her even that much more. In the mornings Liz would get up early and help him with breakfast, and after school (and once she'd finished her homework) Dean would give her lessons on fixing up the cars and in classic rock, which she'd taken a liking to almost immediately. Other than himself and Sam, she was the most important person in Dean's life, and, while Castiel thought he could be a bit of an overbearing father at times, he knew nothing bad would ever happen to her.

Now, however, she was gone and Castiel knew he would miss her terribly. With another sniffle, he left his daughter's room, turning the light off and shutting the door behind him, and headed into his own. Castiel got the door open and found Dean sitting on their bed, Liz's scrapbook in hand, and flipping through pictures of their small little family. Salty tears were running down his cheeks and he was paused on the most recent picture of the three of them, taken only a few months before at her graduation. It broke Castiel's heart seeing his husband this upset and without a word, he went to his side and embraced him, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek.

Dean closed his eyes and swallowed around the lump in his throat, softly running his fingers over the picture. "'M gonna miss her," he mumbled, his voice quivering. "Think she'll be okay out there by herself?"

Castiel only nodded, just as much to reassure himself as Dean that their little girl would be safe. "She's just like you," he told Dean, laying his head on the other man's shoulder and glancing down at the pictures. "Of course she's going to be okay." A small smile lit up Castiel's face, crinkling his eyes. "Liz is tougher than you think she is, Dean."

With a small nod, Dean closed the book and turned to Castiel, his lips twitching upwards into a smile of his own. "I miss her already. The house is too quiet without her in it."

Castiel could see a gray patch of hair on the side of Dean's head that hadn't been there only a few weeks before and he reached up, running his fingers through it and frowning. "Oh, Dean," he whispered, his puppy eyes coming out and his eyes watering some. "It will be okay. Elizabeth will be fine and I told her she was going to call us as soon as she got out there. If she doesn't, she knows I'm going to call her myself and give her a lecture about it." He chuckled, trying to make Dean laugh or smile or _something_ to get that pitiful expression off his face. "Don't worry about her too much."

Dean closed his eyes and sighed, "It's just hard, y'know? She's my little girl. She's my _only _little girl."

"She's mine, too, Dean." Castiel noted, his tone sympathetic. "But I have to trust that we've done our best raising her and that she will be smart enough not to get into trouble." He carded his fingers through Dean's short mess of hair and tried being soothing to his husband. "And we'll go out and visit her sometimes." He told him. "I already ran the idea by her. She's all for it."

Dean's lips twitched up again and soon, it was a full blown smile on his face. "It's not fair how you do that." He muttered, a shaky laugh escaping his lips. "Have I told you that?"

Castiel chuckled again and carefully set the scrapbook on the beside table. "You might have mentioned it once or twice," He ended up sitting in Dean's lap, leaning in for a kiss and cupping the sides of his face in his hands. "And I know something else that might help get your mind off of everything for awhile, too." Dean just grinned at him and flipped the two of them over.

Castiel was right; Dean didn't stress about his daughter heading out to California, for a little while anyways, and that was perfectly okay with him.


End file.
